What new things await us on the big screens of 2019?

Your guide to the big, the shiny and the brand new.

This year the big screen is set to dazzle us with stories we already love and new ones we’re yet to hear. Fresh new spins on beloved classics, existing worlds enhanced with groundbreaking tech – plus exciting debuts, some frankly unbelievable star transformations and, err, Pikachu as a PI. Check out our selection below.

The FavouriteThe Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos was never going to make an “ordinary” film. He spins his surreal style around three complex women; it’s Emma Stone’s first real period role – “about 300 years before any period I had ever done”, she told the audience at this year’s Telluride Film Festival – and one of Rachel Weisz’s “juiciest” ever, according to her interview with Harper’s Bazaar. Olivia Colman is no stranger to playing a queen, but never like this. “The other queens didn’t get to fall in love with two hot women,” she told Hollywood Reporter.

Destroyer
Nicole Kidman may have one of the most recognisable faces in the world but even she was flummoxed by the incredible transformation she goes through in Destroyer. “I was just sitting back watching the last 15 minutes of the film going, ‘God, is that me?’”, she told Variety.

If Beale Street Could Talk
Director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to Moonlight is set to be just as beautiful, emotional and important. At the film’s US premiere, Brian Tyree Henry summed up what makes it such a seminal moment for cinema: “I’ve never seen and experienced a black love like this ever onscreen.”

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
We’ll finally get a glimpse at the dragons’ Hidden World in this epic conclusion, gorgeously created using cutting edge technology and inspired by a dream the director had. Entertainment Weekly got a sneak peek at the “cosmically incandescent set piece” and called it the “technological pinnacle” of the franchise: “witnessed on the big screen, the grand scope of the hidden world suggests something of a fitting culmination for the studio.”

Captain Marvel
The MCU’s first female-led superhero movie is here! We’ll finally get to see Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, but Captain Marvel comes with a technological first too - check out Samuel L. Jackson. He’s been digitally de-aged for the entire film, not just snippets and flashbacks, and it’s quite something.

Aladdin
Imagine letting Guy Ritchie loose on a Disney musical. That’s exactly what they’ve done, and it’s set to be a whole new world compared to the original. Jasmine’s character in particular has been totally reinvented for the 2019 version. “She’s a multidimensional woman,” star Naomi Scott told The Hollywood Reporter. They’ve even giver her a friend that isn’t a tiger - Dalia, her handmaiden and BFF. “We wanted people to watch the movie and see Jasmine’s relationship with another woman, and be like, ‘Ah, that’s what I’m like with my girlfriend,” she said.

Toy Story 4
Even if you felt some serious emotions at the end of Toy Story 3, prepare to reach a whole new emotional stratosphere with the fourth film. Tom Hanks has said that even the cast struggled to get through their lines due to tears. “I realized, ‘Oh, this is a moment in history’”, he said on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

Detective Pikachu
They’ve only gone and done it. They’ve only gone and made a live-action Pokemon film - and what’s more, they’ve made Pikachu into... Sherlock Holmes? We very much doubt you’ve seen anything like this before.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Tarantino’s new project about the Charles Manson murders is said to be his “most personal film” according to producer David Heyman. He’s got Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio working together on a full-length film for the first time too - swoon. Check out Leo’s insta post revealing the two in costume.

The Goldfinch
Fans of Donna Tartt’s literary masterpieces have long dreamt of who they’d cast in films of her books - not that long ago we asked our Instagram community to dreamcast The Secret History – but for the first time, we’ll see her work come to life on the big screen for real. We couldn’t ask for much better than the dream duo of Nicole Kidman and Sarah Paulson.

Joker
Joaquin Phoenix stars in what’s said to be a darker, more experimental look at the man behind the makeup. Due for release in autumn 2019, Joker is a low-budget character study that’s going to chill us to our cores.

Dark Phoenix
There are lots of firsts coming our way in this new X-Men film: first of all, McAvoy told Vanity Fair that it’s “the most emotional X-Men we’ve done, and the most pathos-driven.” Second, it’s GoT’s Sophie Turner’s first lead role. And third, the X-Men take their first trip into outer space(!) in one of the series’ biggest set pieces to date.